Financing with teens was revealed to be one of the biggest concerns among parents in a survey by the Toronto District School Board.

Based on those findings, school council member Dianne Scott organized the Raising Money Smart Kids with Robin Taub event to help parents get a better understanding on how to teach their teenagers about financing.

Dianne Scott (left) introduces Robin Taub to parents in attendance.

A $1,000 Parents Reaching Out grant was given from the Ministry of Education to help facilitate the event, Scott said.

Financial consultant Robin Taub, best-selling author of the book, A Parent’s Guide to Raiding Money-Smart Kids, spoke with parents in the library of Danforth Collegiate Institute on Apr. 25.

“I want parents to feel more confident that this is something they can learn with their teenagers,” Taub said in an interview before the talk. “Money management is something that they can learn as they go with their kids. It’s never too late to learn better habits and learn new things,”

Taub has a son who graduated from Western University and a daughter who just graduated from Queens University, so she knows as a parent how important it is to teach teens about budgeting and financing, especially going into post-secondary education, she said.

“I just want parents to be aware of some of the key issues that teenagers should be aware of around earning, saving, spending, donating and investing — that’s my goal.”

Food and beverages were provided at the event courtesy of the seventh graders in the culinary program at Danforth Collegiate Institute.

As Taub spoke, parents sipped on tea and coffee, and munched on fruits and sweets while jotting on notepads with pens.

The event was open to parents from schools across the city. Miranda Borisenko, whose two daughters are at Monarch Park Collegiate and Western Technical-Commercial School said she found out about the event through an email sent by the school board. She came in order to better teach her daughters how to manage their finances.

“I was never taught, I just learned by what I observed from my family and I wish that I had learned more when I was a teenager, so that I could make better decisions,” she said.

Borisenko said she hopes the presentation will open the discussion with her daughters on how to save for the long term and how to spend money efficiently.